Read Online Snake Eater by William G. Tapply - Free Book Online Page B

Coyne.” Then he turned to Terri and smiled. “Ma’am,” he said.
    “Brady is Daniel’s lawyer,” said Cammie. “And friend.”
    Sweeney nodded. “He’s mentioned you,” he said to me. He turned back to Cammie. “I came just as soon as I got your message. Sorry I wasn’t quicker.”
    “Brian lives in Vermont,” said Cammie. “He doesn’t have a phone. You have to call the general store.” She moved beside him and snaked her arm around his waist. “Brian is Daniel’s best friend in the world.”
    “What in hell happened?” he said.
    “Someone shoved a hunting arrow into his heart,” I said.
    “Jesus,” Sweeney muttered. “They know who?”
    “If they do they’re not saying.”
    “An arrow ?”
    I nodded. “Yes. I saw it.”
    Up close, I could see that Sweeney was younger than I had at first thought. Early forties at the most, I guessed, about the same age as Roscoe and Vinnie. Barely twenty when he prowled the jungles of Indochina with Daniel. But already his hair was thinning and his skinny body was growing stooped and lines were etching themselves on his face. Under its ruddy sunbaked surface his skin seemed dull and sickly.
    He stared solemnly at me. “This is hard to believe,” he said. “I mean, Daniel ? An arrow ? Christ, there ain’t nobody —” I saw his Adam’s apple bob in his long throat, and then tears welled up in his eyes. “Ah, shit,” he said. He turned to Cammie and pulled her against him. “Ah, damn, anyhow,” he mumbled into her hair. “He was all we had,” he said to her. “Both of us.”
    “Roscoe and Vinnie are here,” Cammie told him.
    “Good,” said Sweeney.
    The four of us went back to the house. Sweeney exchanged complicated ritualistic handshakes with Roscoe and Vinnie and then gave each of them a bear hug. The three of them wandered down to the end of the deck, where they stood close together, murmuring.
    After a few minutes they came back. Tears glittered in Roscoe’s eyes.
    “You guys want sandwiches?” said Cammie.
    “Good idea,” said Sweeney.
    Cammie and Terri went inside. I sat down with the other three men and lit a cigarette. Sweeney took a Sucrets box from his shirt pocket, flipped its lid, and removed a prerolled cigarette. He held the box to Roscoe and Vinnie. They both shook their heads.
    Sweeney lit up, sucked in, and held it in his lungs. Then he sighed. “We were all there together,” he said to me, jerking his head at the other two men.
    “Vietnam?”
    He nodded.
    “All of you stayed close.”
    They all nodded.
    “It was Daniel,” said Roscoe softly. “He kept us together. That’s why we all ended up around here. To stick by Daniel.”
    “So who’d want to kill him?” I said.
    The three of them shrugged.
    “What about you?” said Sweeney to me. “Do you have any thoughts?”
    “You mean, who killed Daniel?”
    He nodded.
    “Well, he was worried that he was running out of his medicine.”
    “Yeah,” said Sweeney. “Me, too. Daniel kept both of us supplied.”
    “You—?”
    He nodded. “I got Oranged, too. We talked about it after they ripped up his garden. But Daniel wouldn’t deal with any supplier. I might,” he added with a sly grin, “but not Daniel.”
    “The only other thing I can think of, then,” I said, “is this local cop, this Sergeant Oakley, the one who arrested Daniel. Cammie suspects him, I think. But that seems pretty farfetched to me.”
    Sweeney shrugged. “Daniel was a lovable old bastard,” he said.
    I flashed back on Al Coleman’s words. Coleman had called Daniel crazy and dangerous. “You sure of that?” I said.
    The three of them all frowned at me. “What do you mean?” said Roscoe.
    “Somebody didn’t love him. Somebody killed him.”
    He shrugged. “Someone who didn’t know him, then.”
    “A burglar, maybe.”
    “Nah,” said Sweeney quickly. “No burglar would get the drop on him like that. Daniel was too quick and too careful for any burglar. Was anything